Calls grow for Amaechi’s arrest over ‘bloodshed’ remarks amid 2027 tensions

Summary

• Former Minister Rotimi Amaechi under fire for comments deemed inciting and inflammatory
• Civil society groups demand his arrest, citing threat to national peace ahead of elections
• Amaechi defends comments as critique of government, stoking free speech versus incitement debate

Lagos, Nigeria – Rotimi Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation and two-term Governor of Rivers State, has come under intense public scrutiny following remarks described by several groups as “inciting” and “a threat to Nigeria’s stability.”

The controversy erupted after comments made by Amaechi during a public engagement at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre and at the launch of the 2025 Nigeria Social Cohesion Survey in Abuja.

Amaechi, who recently defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and announced his presidential ambition for 2027, allegedly called for a “revolution” and suggested that “bloodshed” might be necessary to unseat the current political elite.

He reportedly urged Nigerians to “take their fate into their own hands” to prevent President Bola Tinubu’s re-election, drawing comparisons with uprisings in countries like Bangladesh and Peru.

Civil society organisations have condemned his rhetoric. On July 7, the Coalition for the Defence of Nigeria’s Democracy (CDND) described Amaechi’s remarks as “dangerous and reckless,” calling for his arrest and prosecution. The group’s president, Dr Rufus Obadiah, linked the comments to a potential incitement of violence and urged the DSS and Attorney General to take swift action.

Similarly, the Grassroots Mobilisation Initiative (GMI) described the remarks as “veiled calls for anarchy,” while the Niger Delta Youth Congress accused him of undermining democratic institutions with allegations of election-rigging.

Amaechi’s reference to “200 million Nigerians fighting 100,000 elites” has been widely interpreted as a call to arms, with critics likening his language to that of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu.

Although Amaechi has not issued a clarification or rebuttal, older social media posts quoting him, such as one suggesting Nigerians wouldn’t react even “if 10 of them were killed in a row”, have resurfaced, fuelling a perception of a pattern of inflammatory speech.

The uproar comes amid mounting political tension ahead of the 2027 elections. Amaechi’s recent defection from the APC and declaration to run for president have reawakened his long-standing rivalry with Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. The two have exchanged sharp words in recent weeks, with Wike mocking Amaechi’s political ambitions and defending his own record.

Despite the calls for legal action, there is currently no confirmation that any law enforcement body has begun an investigation into Amaechi’s statements. While his critics argue that he has crossed the line from political dissent to incitement, others view the backlash as politically motivated, aimed at silencing a formidable opposition voice.

With the economy under pressure and trust in public institutions waning, Amaechi’s comments, however controversial, appear to tap into deep national frustrations. And as Nigeria inches closer to another critical election cycle, the debate over the boundaries of free speech and the responsibilities of political leaders remains unresolved.

Part of the Speech by Amaechi obtained and transcribed by AfrikTimes

All efforts have been made to preserve originality.

The elites of Nigeria are not the problem of Nigeria. We’re not up to 20,000 elites that are stealing Nigerian money.

Okay, no problem. 100,000 elites, but you have 200 million Nigerians that can fight 100,000 men, and then you sit down in your house and you’re complaining and grumbling. What makes you think that the elites will remove their hand from the stealing if all you do is sit down in your house and grumble and organize one small lecture on how you’re feeling?

Who told you the elites doesn’t how you’re feeling. They know how you’re feeling. They know you’re not happy. If they don’t know—you will not see them in their girlfriend’s house after 6pm. You know why? Because they are running away from you.

They are scared, but you are helpless. Not because the elites want you to be helpless. You are helpless because you make yourself helpless. So why are you gathering here? What? What survey? No matter the survey you bring out here today, the elites already know that.

I was once a governor. The moment I see robbery, kidnapping. I know that there is no money in society. So, commissioner for finance, pay contractors, pay those we are owing. When you pay, what happens? He pays his workers. He pays the people, suppliers, who have supplied him goods. They, in turn, go to the market. They buy goods, they pay the tailor, they pay the doctor. The money goes around, and then the crime wave will reduce. I had that board in my office. I checked it regularly.

Do you know how I check it, too? By making sure I go to night parties. I’m not a night party person, but I go to clubs with minimal or no security, so I test if my life is under threat. Then there is danger, there is problem. What’s the problem? Economy.

Okay, when you tell people, em Tinubu, they say Tinubu was not elected by them. So what did you do? What did you do? The same elites who rigged the election are on the street. What have you done? No, for Christ’s sake, until Nigerian citizens, stop blaming the elites, nothing will change in Nigeria, absolutely nothing.

The next election may come and go and somebody puts himself in power. You say, no worry nah, no be only four years. After four years, he go go. He will come and stay eight years, nothing will happen. In fact, if one mad man comes and say, I want to do life presidency, you will do nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Just pray that there is no mad man that will come and say, I want to do life presidency. Because what he would do is send Chief of Army Staff, IG of Police, Custom, everybody, and put his own men, carry gun, and you run away.

Go to Bangladesh. Right? The day they got tired of that woman. What did they do? They chased her out. Go to, is it Peru or Chile? Nigeria is the most docile society I have seen in my life. You’re clapping for the same—if we line up the thieves here now, you will clap for them.

You know, I told my wife, I want to japa. I want to japa. I won’t japa like you people, oh, they will give me official visa to come and stay in their country, any country. She says, “No, I can’t leave Nigeria.” Because Nigeria is loveable. It’s lovely, lovely. I mean, if you, if you, if, if you go back to when we were students. And the last time this country saw something that looks like a revolution was when we were students, 1983 to 87.

Who were the people that fought the military government? Not you! It’s not you. NANS, National Association of Nigerian students, ASUU, NLC, they are dead. Imagine them arresting somebody who says he was NANS president. In our time? You arrest our president? All the universities in the country will be on strike.

If you are, if we say, tomorrow there is protest, and you are coming from town in the taxi, a girl or boy, they will first of all almost beat you up before we talk about the government. So everybody must participate.

Okay, so, we pushed, we pushed away the military. Clap for ourselves, not you. Don’t clap yourself. I say clap for myself, because I was part of it. And we brought in the politicians. The politicians have shown that they are worse than the military. They military stole money, but they were mindful of how much they were stealing, and they were not showing the public we are stealing. They were denying. Were they not?

They were not driving Jaguar. They were not driving Rolls-Royce. Now, they don’t use 504; they don’t even use ordinary Toyota cars that are the official cars that we use. They—you see their convoys now, brand new Mercedes-Benz, bullet proof, because they know you are angry, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce—nobody stops them, for Christ’s sake. So what, what did you call us to come and do?

The difference with what you’re telling us and this is that, while the politicians know that people are not happy. They don’t know the number of persons. Are they 92% or 98%? So all they can do here now that will be different from what the politicians knows is that you put a figure to it. If you say it is a lie, tell a politician to go to Kaduna by night alone. If he goes alone, he will go with a military-size bulletproof car, bought, again, with your money. No. Can we please go home and think?

“Oh, we don’t want to die!” You mothers. “Oh, my child!” Prof. Sam Amadi taught me in the University, when I read law. He used to tell me, “Has there been any revolution without blood? Any revolution without blood is rebellion.”

Please check Bangladesh. Hundreds died, died. You kill 50 today, they carry the body, go and bury. The next day, early morning, all of them come out. When the woman saw that more persons wanted to die. What happened? She ran away. The same with Peru, Kenya—Kenya.

You people should stop inviting me to this kind of thing. Thank you very much.